Lecture 8 Email and Concision EMail provides a

Lecture 8 Email and Concision

E-Mail provides a middle ground KEY ADVANTAGES • A written record ____________. • “Written conversation” - ________. • Has made some companies _______. KEY DISADVANTAGES • Your message is ___________. • Your reader cannot see or hear you: _______________. • We all struggle with _____________.

Guidelines for E-mail: Format • Provide _____________. • Use greetings and closings as in letters • Keep messages _______ less than___ screens, and break into brief paragraphs • Proofread and edit to send a professional message; you don’t know where it may end up • If you include attachments, ________.

To: • To = _________. • Cc = _________. • 'Bcc' = blind copies; not visible to either to/cc addressees

Avoid • _______________ in the “To” line if the message is only FYI for most of them. • People in “To” line should _______________.

Abbrev, IMHO • Restrict abbreviations to those _____________:

Signatures • Since most email addresses can be cryptic, in business emails, _______________. • Signature files usually contain ______________ • Job title, organization, _______________, _________.

Signatures and Quotes • Avoid ________________ in your signature • Not matter how wise or witty they seem to you, they’ll probably seem moronic to most people. Piscator non solum piscatur Where there is smoke, there may be smoked salmon.

Your own address • Whenever business is involved, use a _________________ like yourname@hotmail. com.

Re: • Should ________________. • Be brief--don’t use a complete sentence • Call _______________.

Re: • Subject lines avoid _______________. • Avoid using punctuation (especially !) in subject lines, since this tends to trigger spam filters.

Guidelines for E-mail: Tone • Watch your tone: e-mails can sound __________________. • Your first e-mail should be ________: provide context and organize details for discussion • If an interchange develops, _________ • Avoid putting _________ in e-mail. • Don’t use “smileys” (emoticons) in business:

Format • Keep paragraphs __________ • If you are sending a report to multiple recipients, put more detail into the email to avoid _______________. • The fewer the people there are on the recipient list, _____________. • Try to keep everything on one screen, about twenty-five lines of text.

Quoting • Avoid including a _________________ with a one- or two word reply in your email. • Instead, use __________. • >and do you agree with the proposal to hire Ms. Ross to >handle our legal services? Yes. Please make the necessary arrangements.

It’s Fast, But… • Don’t assume email gets read immediately. • Don’t notify colleagues via email _______________. • If you’re pressured, flag messages as priority/ask for a confirmation when mail is read.

Priority • Don’t send messages high priority unless _________________________.

Concision

Concision • Concision involves compressing what you mean into the ___________. • Don’t state what your readers can easily infer. • Be aware of __________in English.

Concision Principle 1 1. Avoid ___________. each and every full and complete hopes and desires hope and trust first and foremost

Concision Principle 2 2. Avoid ______________. completely finish past memories future plans future goals basic fundamentals personal beliefs

Redundant Categories • Specific words imply general categories, so you need to state only __________, not the category to which it belongs. educational process bright in color heavy in weight shiny in appearance

Concision Principle 3 • 3. Don’t Use _________ • To understand negatives, we must translate them into affirmatives. • Negatives only imply what to do by ____________.

Throat-clearing • We use some modifiers as verbal tics, which mean _________. to all intents and purposes generally at this point in time really very in kind In order to ______

Next Week Coherence Mid-term - bring � #2 pencil The quiz is also open-note but not open -book